Steven Sarmiento wins first ring at WSOP Circuit Coconut Creek

The 2019 World Series of Poker Circuit Coconut Creek, hosted at Seminole Coconut Creek in South Florida, attracted 617 runners to the $1,700 buy-in Main Event. The $1 million guaranteed prize pool kicked in and Steven Sarmiento from New York City took down the WSOP Circuit ring and a first-place prize worth over $188,158. Nick Yunis, a pro from Chile, finished in fourth place.

Ship it to Steven Sarmiento. The New York City pro hailing from Queens won his first World Series of Poker circuit ring after a hot run down in Florida. Sarmiento had a good summer in Las Vegas with four cashes at the 2019 WSOP at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas. He went deep in the 5K NL event and missed a final table, but still walked away with $34K. He had a couple scores later in the summer at the Borgata in Atlantic City and at Parx in Pennsylvania, but he his first major cash since then with a WSOP Circuit victory in Florida.

The Seminole Coconut Creek is nestled in between Boca Raton and Coral Springs. It's a swanky area that has no shortage of wealthy individuals from all walks of life including deep-pocketed retirees from the Midwest and East Coast.

The 2019 WSOP Circuit Coconut Creek featured a Main Event that included a $1 million guaranteed prize pool. Typically those guarantees never kick in because enough players show up. In this instance, there was an overlay alert because only 617 players too a shot at the $1,700 buy-in circuit event. The $1 million guaranteed kicked when the field fell 44 players short of the mark. A total of $1,515 of the buy-in went toward the prize pool with $185 set aside for administrative fees.

Nick Yunis, a pro from Santiago, Chile, recently relocated to Coral Gables, Florida and the Seminole Coconut was right in his backyard. He came into the final day with a massive chiplead with 11 players remaining. Yunis bagged up nearly 5M. The closest player held 3.2 million and five players were all under 850K.

Yunis had won almost $1.4 million in live events in Europe and the Americas. That puts him ranked #2 on the all-time Chile Money list. Yunis also banked over $2.4 million online according to Pocket Fives. Yunis a well-known online pro from Chile who won multiple COOP titles playing under the 'chilenocl' moniker on PokerStars. He shipped over $1.2 million in tournament winnings on PokerStars alone.

Yunis could not maintain the lead heading into the final day. He'd end up busting in fourth place on a sickcooler.

Chicago's Tom Macey became the first player eliminated at the final table, followed by Dan Couzens and Brad Mercer.

With six to go, three players from the Miami area were still alive including transplant Nick Yunis, Matt Yorra, and Dominique Mosley. All three locals would be the next victims.

Yorra hit the bricks in sixth place, followed by Dominique Mosley in fifth place. Mosley banked nearly $49K for his run.

With four to go, Yunis could not jump start his dwindling stack. He busted on a cooler with trips over trips. His 9-7 was no match against Sarmiento's 9-8. They were almost even in chips when they got it all-in on the river. Sarmiento had Yunis covered and Yunis got picked off in fourth place. Yunis banked $64,423 for his deep run.

Russ Sully Sullivan finished in third place for $86K. Sully's elimination set up a heads-up bout between two New Yorkers.

It was Westchester County going up against Queens, NYC with Neal Corcoran heads-up against Steven Sarmiento. Sarmiento, a pro originally from Forest Hills, New York in the heart of Queens outlasted Neal Corcoran.

Steve Sarmiento took down the tournament and WSOP Circuit ring. SS got to celebrate with another nice score. This one at Seminole Coconut Creek was worth $188,158. He also won a seat in the 2020 Global Casino Championship.

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